Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-01-07

ing up or multiplying resolves could eh'rlca'e
it, and the2 whole question will nave 10 oe
taken ND by master minds and Strengthened
out to meet the new conditions and rela1lons
it bears, under the decisions of the supreme
Court of the q. S., growing out OF the TOOL
ish legislation of 1884. We do not beheve
there is man in the Democratic party, who
would be equal to this task, and that the
more the Legislature would tinker with 1t,
the more complicated it would become
Valley Viayi'aian.
The absence of any Democrat "who
would be equal to the task naturally
leads US to look around for some Republl-
can who may be equal to it. We have
found one, Or at least one who We think,
will suit our Republican contemporary. 1t
will be we'll in Investigating his claims TO
the holor, to remeu.b Der that, by the laws
of Virginia, Uuiaed States currency is q
good medium for the payment OF taxes.
1t will be received her collecting OIL
GERS for thes TAX and a receipt prompt
iy given. TDera L. 10 la W OF the United
States which prohiblEs paying money for
taxes or IN the slightest way conflicts with
or impeacnes ta- co stitutionality Of the
Virginia law which says money may
BIZ received for taxes. By the payment of
taxes in money, be Riddleberger SET
Element Of the deos is made impregnable.
1t is a settlement which was supported by
our contemporary. by the Republican party,
later by the Democratic party. and by the
distinguished gentleman whose letter we
give below. TIE gentleman has been, and
still u.s. a distinguished leader of the Re-
publican party. He has been Republican
United States Senator and Republican
Lieutenant Gogsra.. -. g SIS Low .se
proposes to aid IN making the Riddleber-
ger settlement impiegnable, saving sthe
people of this State from many millions of
already heavily laden shoulders additional
taxation. And while we read his letter,
let US remember that il is addressed to the
Democratic Second Auditor of the State.
an original, consistent, and never chang
ing Democratic Readjuster, who has
fought. out Of Office and in Office, to save
the people from the additional taxation
that the failure Of the Riddlebe1ger SETTLE
ment would entail upon them.
Co., r. G. Rudin: My Dear Friemd,-
Thanks for your pamphlet on the debt settle
ment. I think it would be better for the tax
payers of the State to pay their taxes in mon
ey, but you know. Or ought to know, that
majority will pay in coupons when they think
they are saving fifty cents on the dollar [
pay in coupons in or der to bring this matter
to focus-the sooner the better. 1 do not
las you know believe in any attempt to null
lily, or evade a decision of the Supreme
Court.
Unless we intend ''to whip 'em again." as
one of my countymen said when told that the
reconstruction committee had given another
turn to the screw. we had better take a prac-
teal view of the situation, and elect Blaine
President in 1888, who is in favor of having
the U. S. government assume the debt.
Why should pay dollar, when my neigh
Dor, with as much taxable property, pays fifty
cents? am always willing to obey State
law, when it does not conflict with a. Federal
law. Where this happens, the law attempted
to be made by State is not law.
With best regards to yourself and family,
am your friend
JOHN F. LEWIS.
December 4, 1886.
The "focus'' to which this distinguished
Republican desires to bring this matter
should be we'll understood by the people
of Virginia. They have been there be-
fore. They should recognize it with the
same familiarity as they do smallpox. 1t
is ''focus'' in which the State Treasury
is filled coupons instead Of money; in
which the public schools are closed for
want Of money; in which the charitable
institut ions are cling out pinched liv-
ing and which imperils the very existence
of the State government. 1t is a focus into
which they were put by the sudden chang
ing in night of the vote of the Republican
wing of the Democratic party therein,
whereby they fixed on the State the old
funding bill of 1871 And now it seems
that another Republican summersault is to
land the people in the same focus again
Republican lawyers and coupon agents at
our court days drumming for the sale Of
coupons and urging them on tax payers
for their use and nota Republican paper in
the State. that we call to mind, urging
the people to pay in money and pointing
out to them the additional millions of
debt that they are helping to bring on
themselves by using coupons!
AS to the ex-Senator's recommendation
about Blaine we regret to say that we
see nothing in it. The claim we would
have on the United States to pay por-
ton of our debt on the ground of partition
Of territory, we have already set aside in
West Virginia's one-third. But eve if we
had not, the idea of Northern representa-
tives in ongress-Democrats or Republi-
cans-yoting to pay the debt of Virginia
and then goiHg back to their constituents
for reelection is one Of those acts of gen
erosity so far in the future that it may be
safely handed over to the millennium, at
which time the schools for the poor chill
dren of Virginia closed by Senator Lewis
coupon payment ''focus'' programme,
might be e-opened.
MI Lewis inquiry; why should he pay
a dollar when his neighbOr pays fifty
cents, does not seem we'll pu5 when we
look at the small proportion of taxes that
have been paid with the fifty cent coupons.
1t would be better put this way; why
should he pay fifty cents when one hun
dred other men are paying their dollar. Or,
better still. why, when thousands of men
with far less property than I have, and who
labor at the plough and the workshop, are
daIla oh